Hannes was struggling in the fight. He still wasn't used to this kind of giant-sized combat, much less the ranged attacks that kept coming his way.
For Ultraseven, his greatest strengths were his Eye Slugger and telekinesis. Only an Eye Slugger controlled by telekinesis could deal maximum damage.
But the problem was, Hannes didn't know how to use them.
In his hands, the Eye Slugger was less practical than a crowbar. After all, the thing wasn't even as long as his forearm, and he really wasn't familiar with dagger combat.
Flames splattered. After noticing that the red giant was actually using his own body to shield the soldiers from harm, Levi finally made his move.
He didn't call on the others; in this kind of battle, they would only be a burden. With his gas thrusters firing at full power, Levi quickly rushed toward King Pandon.
However, the very first step of his plan failed: the grappling hooks of his ODM gear couldn't pierce King Pandon's skin, which instantly slashed his mobility by ninety percent.
These specially made hooks could bite deeply into the stone bricks of the walls, yet they were actually deflected by a biological creature's hide. This was something Levi had never anticipated.
With nowhere to anchor himself in midair, Levi rapidly plummeted, simultaneously searching for an opportunity to fire his hooks again.
Falling from a height of dozens of meters would definitely kill him. He wasn't some kind of superhuman, so his first priority was finding the right moment to swing back into the trees.
As for King Pandon, Levi didn't even register in its eyes. Energy surged in its throats; its left mouth spewed a purple heat beam, and its right mouth fired a blue one. The dual-colored rays struck Ultraseven squarely in the chest.
The indicator light on his forehead flashed rapidly. Hannes finally remembered that he had skills of his own. Using the force of the beams to create some distance, he crossed his arms into an L-shape, and a blazing white torrent shot forth.
This was a destructive ray packing 400,000 degrees of thermal energy. As long as it hit, it was enough to instantly kill a monster of King Pandon's caliber in a single strike.
"No way, bro, how did you almost win? Director Eren's script never had any accidents in the original story, so how could my little bit of drama go off the rails?"
If one wasn't enough, then he'd just use two. An aqua-blue crystal quietly vanished, and the earth began to tremble once more.
With a stumble, the Wide Shot grazed past King Pandon's body and shot into the sky. Meanwhile, another monster burst out of the ground just a dozen meters behind Ultraseven.
The Sea Monster, King Guesra!
*There's more?* Hannes's mind was truly about to explode. One monster was already demanding his life; how was he supposed to fight two?
He had enough energy to last another minute, but if he was caught in a pincer attack, he might be beaten out of his transformation before that minute was even up.
"What to do? If Ultraseven is defeated, even if the Royal Government throws everything they have at them, they won't be able to defeat these two monsters."
Zenith was now standing on a tree branch, just a meter away from the safely landed Levi.
A cold blade was pressed against Zenith's neck. Levi's eyes were fierce. "These two big guys... this is your doing, isn't it, Zenith?"
Zenith stepped forward, pressing right against the blade. The edge scraped against his neck, sparking brilliantly. Levi instinctively backed away until he was forced against the tree trunk.
*A neck that sparks against a blade... are you a monster too?* Levi gripped his sword handles tightly. He was starting to lose his grasp on what Zenith was thinking.
"Give it a try. I'm very curious to see how far you can go." Zenith first extended two fingers and snapped the blade in half, then popped the broken piece into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and swallowed it in one gulp.
"Mhm... Blades made of Iron Bamboo really do have a faint, refreshing bamboo flavor. I thought it would taste like rust."
Zenith handed over a pair of glasses intertwined with silver, red, and blue. "You have thirty seconds to think about it. Your dad can't hold out much longer."
*My dad? What dad?? Didn't my dad disappear before I was even born?*
Subconsciously catching the glasses Zenith handed him, his mind instantly grasped how to use them.
*Humans can actually transform into giants? Is that red Ultraseven also a transformed human?*
Understanding this, Levi hesitated no longer. He placed the glasses over his eyes and pressed the button.
"JIO—!"
It was the inherited transformation battle cry of the Ultra lineage. Unlike Hannes, the moment Levi transformed, he launched an attack straight from the sky: Ultra Zero Kick!
Gathering energy in his right foot, he executed the variant move learned from the Leo Kick, instantly taking out King Pandon the moment he appeared on the scene.
Amidst the violent explosion, Levi helped a bewildered Hannes to his feet. Just a moment ago, he had been confused about what Zenith meant by "dad," but after transforming, he understood immediately.
This was purely a sick joke. The transformation items Zenith handed out were literally a father-son set. Ultraman Zero was exactly the son of Ultraseven.
As the new generation surpasses the old, Zero's base stats were already a massive leap above his old man's, and Levi's combat skills were infinitely superior to Hannes's.
Gripping the twin Zero Sluggers—the same type of weapon as the Eye Slugger—Levi gave Hannes an on-the-spot demonstration of what true combat looked like, and how to make Sea Monster sashimi.
Hannes looked around, and upon seeing Zenith waving from the tree, he immediately understood the situation. Just as he was about to step in and help, he realized that the newly spawned King Guesra had already been brutally hacked to death by Levi.
He didn't even need to use any skills!
The two exchanged a glance and nodded in unison. Then, with a resounding "Jio!", they flew into the sky, exiting the crowd's line of sight in standard Ultraman fashion before quietly reverting to their human forms beside Zenith.
"To be honest, I'm a bit confused." Levi held the Ultra Zero Eye, thought for a moment, and tossed it straight back to Zenith.
"If you wanted to, even with a transformation time of only three minutes, it would be enough to kill all the Titans. Why not do that?"
This was the truth. Combining the power of Ultraseven and Ultraman Zero, they could even conquer the world in a short amount of time. The power of an Ultraman was an absolute dimensional strike.
"Because the Titans are Eldians. Every single man-eating monster is, at its core, your compatriot."
Zenith tossed the glasses back. "Keep it. The truth will surface with time. The people on Paradis Island have been isolated from the world for too long. When you truly connect with the rest of the world, you'll need the power of Ultraman as a deterrent."
The worldview of this world was actually quite twisted. The Eldians, who once ruled the world using the power of the Titans, were overthrown and reduced to an inferior race.
Meanwhile, the newly established Marleyan Empire relied on that very same Titan power to maintain its new reign. The world was a flat circle; the dragon-slaying hero eventually becomes the dragon. As long as the power of the Titans existed, it would be an endless cycle.
In Director Eren's script, the power of the Titans would completely vanish. There would be no more Pure Titans or Intelligent Titans, and the Eldians would shed their identity as devils to integrate into the new world.
But as the saying goes, prejudice in the human heart is an immovable mountain, and a rotten apple is still a rotten apple. Ordinary people who had feared the power of the Titans since ancient times wouldn't suddenly treat Eldians kindly just because they lost that power.
Therefore, restoring the Pure Titans to their original human forms and making Ultraman the new deterrent wasn't a bad idea at all.
At the very least, it was far more reliable than Director Eren using The Rumbling to slaughter the entire world.
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